


The Good Old Days

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nostalgia, Power Outage, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:15:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2847389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann and Newt go scavenging for supplies during a blackout and get more than they bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Old Days

**Author's Note:**

> This is my secret santa gift for [all-day-merrydan](http://all-day-merrydan.tumblr.com/) . I hope you like it! <3 <3

The Shatterdome was in the middle of one of the heaviest rainstorms they’d experienced all year.

The latest batch of rain had been bad enough that it'd managed to knock out power to the whole Shatterdome.  It made it pretty impossible for anyone to get any work done.  The lights were out, the computers were down, and in areas that were more heavily automated even the _doors_ weren't working.  The phones were down, but a few people's cell phones managed a weak signal and last Newt heard, Tendo was supposed to be looking into an old stash of walkie talkies.  With communications _mostly_ down and work a no-go that didn't leave them with a whole lot of options as far as activity went.

When the power had first blown out, Newt had scrambled to get a backup generator going to keep his samples fresh while Hermann had checked to make sure none of the computers had fried – with budget cuts they didn't have a whole lot of insulation against power surges these days.  At one point Newt had tripped and gotten tangled in the generator's wires and Hermann'd had to come fish him out of them, but in the end the generator worked, so it was a win.  Since then, they'd just sat around in the dark – the generator didn't have enough oomph to give the _whole_ lab juice.

Newt sighed.

"That's the tenth time you've sighed in as many minutes," Hermann pointed out, huddled deep in his parka.  No power meant no heat, either – they were both freezing their asses off.

He sighed again.

"Now you're doing it on purpose."

"We should get outta here."

"And go where, exactly?"

"Dunno.  Anywhere's gotta be better than this, dude.  Maybe someone somewhere's gotten some power going.  At least some heat or something."

"It's not so bad."

Newt snorted loudly.  "Easy for _you_ to say, you could survive a trek through the Antarctic in that thing."

"Traipsing through a series of corridors and stairwells in the dark probably isn't wise."

That was a good point.  The lab was dimly lit by the glow of his tanks, so they weren't in _complete_ darkness, but there weren't a whole lot of windows in the Shatterdome and without even the backup power working it was probably pitch black out there.

"I'm pretty sure we've got a couple of flashlights lying around in here.  Uh, somewhere."

Hermann didn't immediately shoot down the idea, and that's when Newt knew he had won.

~

"This was a terrible idea."

It honestly had been, but Newt wasn't going to _admit_ that.  They'd only found one flashlight, so they'd stuck close together and went looking for signs of life.  They'd been wandering around for _at least_ half an hour, and without much light all the hallways kind of looked the same.

"You're lost, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

"No, I'm not!  I know exactly where we're going."

He was.  He was lost.  He had _no_ idea where they were going.  It was a bit like a horror movie scenario.  He halfway expected something to jump out of the shadows at them.

Then something _did_ jump out of the shadows at them.  

Newt screamed.  

Hermann jumped with a start, "Wh–"

"Newt?"

His heart was hammering so hard he felt like it was going to jump out of his chest and go running down the hallway in terror without him.  It took his frantic brain took a few seconds to process that he was hearing a familiar voice.

It was Mako.  Just Mako and not some flesh-eating mutant on the prowl.  Obviously he'd _known_ it wouldn't be, but the atmosphere had gotten to him, a little bit.  

"H-hey, Mako!" he squeaked.  

Beside him, Hermann made a noise that sounded suspiciously like muffled laughter.

“What are the two of you doing wandering around out here?”

“Newton was beginning to feel restless in the lab.”

“I was _not_!  I just figured we should take a look around and see how things were going everywhere else, y’know?”

“Of course,” Hermann said in an amused tone.  “Thus our aimless wandering, until we ran into you.  Has power been restored anywhere yet?”

She shook her head.  “We tried to get at least backup power operational in LOCCENT, but it was no use.  I think the wiring may have been damaged.”

“I certainly hope not.  If the power system’s been _physically_ damaged, we may be without power for… much longer than anticipated.”

“Yes,” Mako replied gravely, “and as long as the Shatterdome is without power, we’d be helpless against a kaiju attack.  We wouldn’t even be able to deploy any jaegers.”

“Come on,” Newt scoffed.  “What are the odds of a kaiju attacking at the _exact_ same time as us losing power?”

The others fell silent and the more he thought about it, the more he felt a little nervous.

“Uh, yeah, okay, that would be bad.  What are we gonna do?”

“I was on my way to a breaker room to see if a problem there might be disrupting the backup power.  If we could get at least that working, it would give us something to use until we can get main power restored.”

Hermann nodded.  “We’ll go with you.”

“We will?”

“There are several utility closets along the way.  If we aren’t able to get the backup generator working via the breakers, we may be able to find something we could use to repair the damages.  Three pairs of eyes are better than one.”  He glanced at Newt.  “Besides, I’m certain Dr. Geiszler would feel much safer traveling in a group.”

Newt bristled.  “She _startled_ me, okay?  It could’ve happened to anyone.”

“Of course,” Mako agreed, with a sympathetic smile that did _not_ go with the mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Oh man, now you guys are just ganging up on me.  I don’t have to take this, y’know, I could just head back to the lab and let the two of you solve the power crisis on your own.”

Hermann raised an eyebrow.  “Really.”

“ _Really_.”

“You’d travel back to the lab?  On your own?  In the dark?”

~

Mako had a better sense of direction than either of them did and it didn’t take long for them to reach the breaker room.  They’d have to navigate one of the stairwells to get to it, which had been _real_ fun in the dark with only two flashlights between them, but they’d made it to the bottom in one piece.  

The room doubled as one of those utility closets Hermann had mentioned, and while Mako walked over to inspect the power breakers, the two of them started rifling through boxes and checking shelves for anything that might be useful.

So far they hadn’t had a whole lot of luck, but they _had_ found some extra flashlights that would probably come in handy.  

“Finding anything over there?” Newt called out, tossing something that looked like a tv antenna but was probably something else off to the side as he rummaged through what had to have been the fifth or sixth box he’d gone through.

“Nothing… especially useful.”

Hermann’s slight pause made Newt look up and glance over his shoulder.  “Is it something just sort of averagely useful?”

The other man made a noise that sounded like it couldn’t decide whether to be a snort or a sigh, so it just ended up sounding kind of like a sneeze.  Or it actually wasa sneeze – the room _was_ kind of dusty.  “It’s not _useful_ at all, Newton.”

“See, you _say_ that, but now I’m curious.”  Newt leapt up from where he’d been kneeling on the floor and walked across the room.  “C’mon, what is it?”

He peeked over Hermann’s shoulder and peered into the box… and started laughing.  

“I _told_ you it wasn’t anything useful.”

“Who decided a Super Nintendo was super-important Shatterdome equipment?  Where did this thing even come from?  It’s _ancient_!”

The thing had to be at least thirty years old, maybe even older.  It was a little battered and some dust had gotten into the box and settled onto it, but it didn’t look half-bad for a piece of gaming technology that was almost as old as they were.  Newt wasn’t even sure if he’d ever actually _seen_ one this close before.

Before he could stop himself, he found himself blurting, “We should play it, man.”

“On what, pray tell?  In case you hadn’t noticed, Newton, there’s no electricity.  Even if there was, I doubt we could find a television it would be compatible with.”

“I bet we could find a way to hook it up to one of those old-ass computer monitors you keep in the lab.”

Hermann opened his mouth to protest, then closed it, and seemed to actually give it serious thought.  After a few moments, he finally said, “It still won’t do us much good without an actual game to go in it.”

“Well, if someone stuck the system in here, there’s gotta be some games lying around somewhere too, right?”

“We are supposed to be looking for items that are of actual use in our current situation, not _toys_.”

“Dude, we’re already rifling through all these boxes anyway.  It couldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for some games while we’re at it, I’m just saying.  What were Super Nintendo games even on?  CDs?”

“Cartridges,” Hermann said, in a slightly offended tone.

Newt paused.  “Hey, have you… _played_ one of these before?”

“Certainly not.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and watched Hermann closely.  There – there it was.  Every time Hermann lied his face did this _thing_ , like it was trying to crawl off his head and escape from his really blatant lies.

“You have!”

“Is now _really_ the time to be discussing this?”

“Maybe not, but we’re definitely gonna discuss it later.”

“I can’t wait,” he muttered.  Even though the light of the flashlights wasn’t the best ever, Newt was _pretty_ sure Hermann was blushing.

Newt chuckled and went back to his side of the room and opened another box.  It was the first box he’d found that had stuff that looked like it might actually be useful for what they needed.  There were some fuses and wires that they could probably use to patch up the power lines, if they could find out exactly where the problem areas were.

He dug out everything important, then grabbed one of the emptier feeling boxes and dumped the contents so he’d have a spot to stick all the relevant stuff.  Everything in the box went tumbling out and scattered across the floor at his feet with a loud series of noises.

Both Hermann and Mako glanced over their shoulders and gave him sharp looks.

“Uh, sorry.”

He sheepishly bent over to pick up some of the stuff that had fallen out.  It had _not_ felt like there was that much stuff in that box, holy shit.  That’s when he saw it.

Mario Kart.  It didn’t have a number in the title, so he could only assume it was _the_ Mario Kart – the original.  It was in even rougher shape than the Super Nintendo had been.  It a couple really noticeable scrapes on the sides and the label was faded and discolored and peeling in a few spots.  He’d always heard those old Nintendo games were built to last, though.  He wondered if it was still playable.

Hermann’s voice startled him out of his train of thought.  “How’s it going over there?”

“Not well,” Mako replied, shutting the breaker panel with a sigh.  “I don’t think we’re going to be able to get things working from here.”

Newt hoisted the “useful” box into his arms with a grunt.  “Well, I found a few things that might come and handy back in the command center.  How about you, Hermann?”

“There isn’t much, but I found a few things, yes.”

“The Super Nintendo doesn’t count,” Newt grinned.

Hermann gave him a look that could curdle milk.  “I found other things, as well.”

Newt walked over.  “Stick ‘em in the box.”

Between the two of them, they’d found enough to almost fill the whole box.  It was just one box, but still, it was better than nothing, right?

“I’ll take the box back to LOCCENT,” Mako said.  “The two of you should head back to the lab.”

“We could come along and help, if you like,” Hermann offered.

“Thank you, but most of the technicians are there already.  I think we’ll be able to handle it on our own.  Did you want me to go back to the lab with you?”

“No, I think we’ll be alright, provided Newton doesn’t jump at any more shadows.”

“Hey!”

Once Mako left with the supplies, they headed back to the lab – but not before Newt packed the Super Nintendo and Mario Kart into a box when Hermann wasn’t looking.

“What’s in that box?”

“It’s a surprise.”

Hermann side-eyed him suspiciously, but dropped the subject.  

~

The trip back to the lab felt like it went a lot faster than the trip _from_ the lab had been.  Newt wasn’t actually sure if it actually was or if he just felt a lot better now that they’d seen other signs of life and things felt less like a horror movie.

When they got back, Hermann started up again.  “Newton, what is in the box?”

“I told you we should try out that Super Nintendo.”

“Yes, and I told you earlier, without a _game_ to put in it, it isn’t of much–”

He pulled out the Mario Kart cartridge and Hermann’s face lit up like a Christmas tree before he seemed to catch himself and plaster a disinterested, neutral expression on his face.  Newt knew what he’d seen, though, no matter how quick Hermann had been to smother it.  

_What a nerd,_ he thought fondly.  Out loud he said, “See, we _have_ a game.  How ‘bout it?”

“It still won’t do us any good without power.”

“Well, it’s not like we need a _lot_.  All we need is enough to power this thing and one of the monitors.  I think I can hook it up to the generator I’m using for my tanks.”

“Is that safe?”

“Dude, nothing’s going to, like… blow up or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.  If it looks like the generator can’t handle the extra load, we’ll stop, okay?  But come on, what else are we supposed to do until the power comes back on?  We can’t exactly get any work done and just sitting around was making me go stir crazy.”

“I’d noticed.”

“Hey, have you played this game before?”

“I may have, at some point,” Hermann sniffed, “I can’t recall.”

“Uh huh.”

~

It wasn’t that hard to find a way to get the thing hooked up to one of Hermann’s old monitors – those things were probably just as old as the console was.  He’d put both the monitor and the gaming system on a small table with wheels on it and moved it over to the couch.  

Newt shoved in the cartridge, pressed the power button, and the screen flickered to life.  He picked up on of the controllers and plopped down on the couch beside Hermann, who had the other controller.

“You ready for this?  ‘Cause I gotta warn you, I’ve played a _lot_ of Mario Kart in my day.”

“Really.”

“Yeah, man, I think the first one I played was the one on the Nintendo 64?  And I’ve played a couple of the newer ones, too.  I’m pretty good.”

“Well, thank you for warning me,” Hermann replied dryly.

“I’m just sayin’, I know my way around a race track.”

“I’m sure you do.”

Newt licked his lips, “Why don’t we make this interesting?”

“How do you mean?”

“I dunno, like… if I win, you write up my weekly reports for me for a month, and if _you_ win you get to kiss me every day for a month.”

“Newton, that hardly seems like fair terms.  I _already_ kiss you on a regular basis.  Perhaps if I win, _you_ should write _my_ reports for me.”

That sounded like hell, honestly, but what were the odds of Hermann actually winning, anyway?

“Okay, deal.”

He pressed start and they each picked their respective characters.  The selection wasn’t as varied as Newt was used to, but that was to be expected – it _was_ a pretty old game.  It was still the same basic idea as the rest of them, though.  He almost felt bad for Hermann – he had no idea what he was in for.  The poor guy didn’t stand a chance.  

The race started, and that’s when everything started going wrong.  Newt had picked Yoshi because he _always_ picked Yoshi.  Yoshi was lightweight and sailed across race tracks like a dream.  Yoshi made smooth turns.  Yoshi… was in the water.  

“Damn it!”

“Having difficulties, Newton?”

“Nah, I just need to get the hang of the controls.”

It wasn’t as responsive as the other games he’d played had been.  He’d press buttons and it felt like it took several seconds for it to actually _do_ anything.  It was like trying to drive a _tank_ or something.

Hermann didn’t seem to be having any trouble.  Luigi was nowhere to be seen, and it took a second for Newt to realize that was because he was already a hair away from finishing lap one.  Hermann was– Hermann was _winning_.  

Newt leaned forward on the couch and mashed the B button the second he touched the ground after being fished out of the water.  He could do this.  He _could_.  He could catch up with Hermann, he just had to move fast.  So the controls were a bit clunky, so what?  He could adapt.

He swerved off the road a couple times after that, but he recovered well.  He ran into a _mole_ that popped up out of the ground and muttered “shit!” under his breath, but he kept going.  He was catching up.  It was taking awhile, but he was catching up.  He could still do this.  He saw a green hat in the distance – he was closing in.  He was–

A green shell hit him from out of fucking nowhere.  He spun out of control and completely lost his momentum.  Luigi once again zoomed out of sight.  

“God _damn it_!” he exclaimed.

“I had no idea you were such a sore loser,” Hermann said, sounding _way_ too pleased with himself.

“I haven’t lost yet, Hermann.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t ‘hmm’ me, buddy.”

He could still win.  He just needed to find a way to level the playing field.  He wasn’t close enough to hit him with a red shell, and the green ones bounced around _way_ too much to be reliable.  He bided his time, he waited – then when he finally got a banana peel he dropped it.  

Hermann didn’t even bat an eyelash.  He was so occupied with his half of the screen, Newt was pretty sure he hadn’t seen the banana peel at all.  He resisted the urge to cackle and tried to play it cool.  He didn’t want to give his plan away too soon and risk Hermann managing to–

Luigi swerved around the banana peel effortlessly.

“ _Son_ of a–”

Hermann made a noise that wasn’t “suspiciously like” anything, it was _definitely_ a laugh.

“Oh, I bet you’re loving this.”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

Newt shook his head and pressed the B button harder as if that would make him go faster.  It didn’t, but he was so hell-bent on catching up to Hermann that he didn’t realize what he was driving into until he was already spinning again.

“Laid low by your own banana peel,” Hermann commented.  “That’s tragic.”

“Laugh it up, Hermann.  Laugh it up.”

He wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet.  He still had a few tricks up his sleeve, and he was finally getting the hang of the clunky controls.  He got his hands on a lightning bolt and took perverse pleasure in waiting until just before Hermann was about to finish lap three before he quickly hit the A button.  

Hermann grumbled something incoherent that sounded vaguely German and Newt cackled.

“You are an entire _lap_ behind me,” Hermann pointed out.  “It will take more than that to turn the tide of this race.”  He didn’t sound nearly as smug as he had earlier, though, and that gave Newt a tiny little surge of actual hope.

The lightning bolt had helped Newt close the gap between them a little bit, but he _was_ still pretty far behind.  He needed more.  He kind of regretted not picking a stage with more environmental obstacles, but then again, he’d had enough trouble with just the water and the moles – he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle lava, and Hermann would have probably dodged all of it as effortlessly as he did everything else.

He needed more things like the lightning bolt – stuff Hermann _couldn’t_ avoid – but the item selection was randomized, and he kept getting double-edged shit like those green shells and banana peels.  

Eventually, he got a star.  His speed increased and he slowly but surely gained on Hermann.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermann shift in his seat a little bit.  There wasn’t a whole lot of distance between them now.  Hermann dropped a banana peel and Newt dodged it.  He dropped a green shell, and Newt dodged that, too.  

_Holy shit, I might actually be able to do this._

He got hit by lightning, and Hermann started to fade into the distance again.

“Damn it!  No!”  

They were both getting close to the end of the last lap, now.  That’s when Newt got it.  The red shell.  Hermann was just a short distance away from the finish line, he had to act fast or else–

He hit the B button.  The red shell sailed majestically across the road and streaked straight towards Hermann.  Hermann spun out of control, and Newt zoomed past him smoothly and across the finish line.

He did it.  

He _did it_!

He leapt up off the couch.  “Ha!”

Hermann stared at the screen, mouth hanging open.  “You–”

“I _won_!”

“That was the most _underhanded_ –”

“All’s fair in love and war, Hermann.”

Hermann was starting to turn a really interesting shade of red.  “I demand a rematch.  That was– that was a fluke.  You could not possibly pull that off again.”

Newt grinned, feeling kind of giddy.  "I had no idea you were such a sore loser, Hermann."  
  
"I demand a rematch."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Yes.  This time _I_ will pick the stage."  
  
"Sure, okay.  I mean, if you're that eager to have your butt kicked again."  
  
Hermann glowered at him.  With the greenish tint from the glow of the nearby tanks to back it up, it was a pretty potent scowl.  He opened his mouth to retort, but before he got a chance to say anything the lights in the lab abruptly flared back to life.  
  
"Flared" definitely being the appropriate word for it.  It took a minute for Newt's eyes to adjust to the sudden change and when he was finally able to see again – complete with spots dancing on the edges of his vision – Hermann was squinting and looked just as disoriented.  
  
Newt blinked.  "Guess they finally got the power back on."  
  
"It would seem so."  
  
"We should...get back to work?  Probably?"  
  
"Probably," Hermann agreed, but he didn't put down his controller, and neither did Newt.  
  
"So… about that rematch…"

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, Newt winning was a fluke. Hermann won the next three matches. :P


End file.
